15 Dollar/Week Dog Food

From: New England Clam Chowda

On Jul 13, 2008

Well, you certainly have an interesting recipe! I have to agree 100% with the previous poster, try for a more simplified recipe. I don't want to rain on your parade, but.... I am concerned about the fat content (I suspect it's the chicken gizzards, which should not be fed consistently in high quantities). Also, the carbs and fiber are quite high. Beans are good, but in moderation; they are not the easiest to digest and can cause the stomach to rumble (ever eat too much chili?) In the "Nutrition Facts", where is all that sodium coming from? Dogs should have very little, if any. The sugars are also a little high but that could be the combination of the sweet potatoes, rice & molasses. The potassium ratio is incredibly high. You might want to tweak this again, using no more than half the quantity of black beans, kidney beans, lentils and considering all but eleminating the molasses. I'm assuming by 'oats' you mean oatmeal. I would think the 2 cups is more than enough fiber. Too many beans/lentils can lead to kidney problems as well as either the runs or constipation. Did you try figuring in kelp, wheat germ, brewers yeast, canned pumpkin (not the pie kind, the vegetable), a small amount of beef liver (equal to no more than 1-2 T per day), egg(s), adding a few spoonfuls of plain, low-fat yogurt or a low/non-fat, unsalted cottage cheese when serving? Consider working up 4 recipes, each with about 1/3 the number of ingredients. Feed 2 meals per day and over a 2-day period, serve one of each of the 4 recipes. Variety is the key, not quantity all at once. You can even make up a quick fifth meal of scrambled eggs (make in microwave & you need no fat). After cooking the eggs, put in their bowl & add a cut up piece of whole wheat or multi-grain broken into bit-size pieces, add a few tablespoons of no/low fat cottage cheese, top with grated apple (or unsweetened applesauce) and perhaps a tablespoon of a grated hard cheese (parmesan, romano, etc). Can substitute apple with a seasonal fruit: blueberries, banana, strawberry. If you mix everything well, your little friends should clean their bowls. (I think you have more than enough phosporus and possibly zinc with all that powdered milk. You might want to recheck both your source of nutritional/mineral/trace element requirements and your calculations. Too much of something is just as bad, if not worse, than not enough.) Good luck.

From: Chef #863906

On Jun 17, 2008

As humans we see a multitude of ingredients and think "GREAT! MUST TASTE GREAT!" Stop thinking like a human when you feed your dogs. Dogs do not digest different food the way us humans do. They have a MUCH shorter intestine and meats, veggies, fruits etc digest differently. Of course any dog would eat this and would be happy but be simplictic when feeding your dogs. Minimize the items and offer them variety over a period of time rather than all at once.